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Back-to-school shopping to cost Americans roughly 11% more per child this year, report shows 84%
7/28/2026, 5:38:36 PM
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Well, the back to school season is just around the corner.
If you thought last year was expensive, this year is expected to cost even more.
According to new research from advocacy group groundwork collaborative and think tank, the Century Foundation, it'll cost families close to $4,000 more per child this year.
That's an increase of nearly 11% from the last school year.
And 45% of families say they plan to just take on debt to afford it all.
Watch reporter Megan Cerulu joins us now.
I mean, we remember when we were in school how much it was for our parents with the binders and the notebooks and I mean everything is just even more so what is more expensive and by just how much?
This new tally shows that back to school supplies are rising by 8%.
And that includes backpack essentials, glue sticks, notebooks, note cards.
Take a lunchbox for example.
That's up 27% costing almost $20.
Then you have notebooks. I I used to have those from five star.
A single subject notebook is up 23%. You might need five or six of those depending on how many subjects you take and they're costing about $5 each.
>> That doesn't even include remember like the T83 calculators or something that like had games.
I don't even know if they use those anymore.
Why are we seeing these increases and what are parents doing to afford them?
These goods are imported.
Their makers say that they're subject to these enormous tariff bills from President Trump's tariffs.
And so they've had to hike prices sometimes multiple times over the course of the year to maintain profitability and that's showing up in consumer goods prices on [snorts] on store shelves.
Parents say that they are taking on debt.
They're paying for these goods with credit cards.
They're turning to buy now pay later loans.
And in some cases, they're pulling back on personal essentials because nobody wants to send their kid to school unprepared, without everything they need to succeed.
>> Okay.
So, what about school lunches?
What's going on there?
>> Meal time staples are up 11%.
So, it's going to cost families roughly $3,800 to pack school lunches per kid this year.
tariffs are contributing and this is one of the effects of the war in Iran which is driving up fuel prices.
So diesel fuel costs are up which makes it really expensive to ship goods all manner of goods across the country and fresh produce requires that it be shipped on refrigerated trucks and that's part of the driver behind these increased costs.
Higher oil prices are making petroleum based plastic packaging, which is used in juice boxes and snacks, more expensive, too.
>> Wow. Yeah, I saw blueberries in our graphic up something like 40%.
Crazy.
Megan Cerillo, thank you.
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